5 Inspirational Events from Swami Vivekananda’s life

Swami Vivekananda’s life is full of such big and small events which can always teach us lessons of life. Here are 5 handpicked events from Swami Vivekananda which tell us more about his personality, qualities, intelligence and love for his nation.

#1 Ability to Focus on Two Planes Simultaneously:

This is a story from Swami Vivekananda’s (Narendra) childhood. One day in a classroom, Narendra was telling a story to his friends during lunch hour. The students were so much absorbed in Narendra’s story that they missed the next subject teacher. The teacher started teaching. The teacher heard the whispering and annoyingly asked each student what he was teaching. One part of his mind was engaged in talking and the other part in listening what teacher was teaching. When the teacher came to know that Narendra was the one who was talking also, he refused to believe. Teacher punished other students other than Narendra, but he also joined the punishment as he always spoke the truth.

#2 Fearlessness:

Swami Vivekanand was fearless from early childhood. He used to visit his grandfather and climb on a Champa tree in the compound. Children in the area were scared of a story of a ghost living on the tree and did not dare to climb the tree. It was told to the children that whosoever climb the tree, the ghost will break their neck. Being only 8 years old, Narendra was so fearless that despite all warnings, he would go ahead and climb that tree.

#3 No lust & material pleasure:

When Swami Vivekanand was in America, there were some jealous Christian missionaries who wanted to defame him. They included an attractive young American lady as the disciple of Swamiji. Once the lady got the chance to meet Swami Vivekananda alone. She praised him and asked him to marry her. On asking the reason she said she wanted to have a son like him. Swami Vivekanand bowed to the feet of the Lady and said that he would become his son. Lady was ashamed of her wicked drama and she later became one of the ardent followers of Swami Vivekananda.

#4 Witness and need of the time:

Once Swami Vivekananda was traveling on a train in America. In the same compartment, three girls were also traveling who made fun of Swami Vivekananda and tried to annoy him. They saw a precious wristwatch on his wrist and asked him to give that watch otherwise they will complain to the cops that he tried to harass them. But Swami Vivekanand used his wit and didn’t reply. He just made a hand gesture that he couldn’t hear, he is deaf. He then made a gesture that whatever they want to say, they can write on paper and give to him. The girls wrote what they were saying and handed it to him. Swami Vivekanand then spoke, “Please call the cops I want to register a complaint against you”. The girls were astonished at the wit he used and got silent.

#5 Unity in Disparity in India:

Once during his stay in the US, an American was making fun of Indian culture. He asked Swami Vivekananda in a mock way that how can people of different colors stay together. Some people are dark, some fair, some brown. He gave an example of U.S. where everybody looked the same way. Swami Vivekananda gave an awesome reply to him saying that horses are of different color some black, some white and some brown but donkeys are of same color. He asked him whether horses are inferior to donkeys? The man got silent and realized his mistake.